I had one and if you swapped in a cam, tweaked the mitering rods (in the carb) and slapped on a pair of headers it really "opened it up"!! Though I wish back wen I owned my 1974 Omega I could have afforded to swap out the rocker arm set up for a more "adjustable type"!! But DAMN the car I had was a complete BEAST on the streets!! Launching it off the line was "interesting" because in those days all we had were "ladder bars" and you'd literally twist the leaf springs into an "S" when standing on the throttle from a dead stop!! But as soon as you felt the rear end "drop" my car would launch out of the hole just a split second later, and boy watch out for that "second gear kick" as she started in a straight line, because once she grabbed second my car was GONE!! Funny story, this guy had a 1977 Z/28 Camaro, and we lined our cars up one night on the far end of town (at the last stop light in town)!!! When the light changed green we both dropped the hammer, and took off! He jumped out half a car length on me at first till I hit second and my Omega chirpped the 60 series bias ply tires then caught FULL traction, and stepped out three car lengths on him! We hit the quarter mile mark (and I was still pulling away) and BOTH OF US stayed on it down the rest of the straightway (which was a couple miles long)!! We both turned into the local shopping mall which was about three miles away! When all was said and done, my Omega had gotten a five car lead on his Camaro! And don't get me wrong his car WAS A BEAUTIFUL CAR, where mine looked like a pile of crap!! Him and I became friends that night and he pulled up next to me in the mall parking lot DEMANDING to see what I had under the hood!! Boy was he shocked to see that Rocket 350 which looked "totally stock" under there!! LOL

It's a real Omega S?

@@weseisenschenkslostmusclec9123 No. However it has the 350 4 barrel optional engine. Also drum brakes all the way around. I'd guess whoever ordered it wanted the cheapest version with the largest engine.

Isn't there a more skilled way of stopping rather than the panic, lock the breaks, stop?

Tony W Haha! I just wrote a similar comment on a Motorweek Retro on the AMC Concord.

It's actually a test to see how well the brakes can dissipate heat to avoid brake fade. Drums were more susceptible than discs, the drum would expand from the heat and the shoes would have to travel to compensate, resulting with a sinking pedal.

This comment is so accurate lol.

@@MrSteve24fps How can the brakes build any heat if they are instantly locked up???

Yep and Pontiac did the same thing with the Ventura and Buick with the Apollo. All of them evolved Nova's.

@@Wildstar40 That was what Nova code stood for Nova Omega Ventura Apollo

@@emeyer6963 a true guru👌 nice to meet a fellow guru on KZfaq most of the time it's just kids talking shit lol

@@emeyer6963 The '74 Ventura G.T.O. is my favorite X body.

If you thought that is rare look at the Buick apollo

To be fair the Pontiac had a Pontiac built 350,the Omega an Olds built 350.

reminds me of chips

@@SurviventheOnslaught Reminds me of a period correct porn, with all the hair.

This car and the Nova still maintained basic musclecar bodylines instead of becoming boats like the Chevelle and Cutlass.

@DR X was the 403 avaliable on the Omega? It had the same stroke as all the small block olds like the 330 and 350 and a giant over 4.3" bore.

403 didn't come out until 1977. Smallest car you could get one in was a 77 Cutlass for Oldsmobile. They did put them in some automatic trans Trans Ams 78-79

Frank Burns + they were the first with over head valve modern v 8 and many other firsts know as the gentleman's hot rod for years

I'd personally swap your evaluations of Buick and Olds, especially after about '72, but agreed generally. This was even more apparent by this point with the rise of badge engineering.

Drchainsaw77 That could be legit, but that's my point. Olds and Buick never really made their place in the GM lineup clear. Chevy, Cadillac, and even Pontiac (more than Buick and Olds, at least) all had clearly defined themes--entry-level, luxury, and "sporty." Kinda weird, now that I'm saying this, that the Corvette was a Chevy and not a Pontiac, but I digress.

As MiddleClass mentions above, Olds was the technology leader... if it worked in Olds, then Cadillac got it the next year... Buick's technology was often bizarre, inefficient, and troublesome...

Oldsmobile was the car on which G.M. tested new inventions. If they succeeded on them, they showed up on other G.M. cars. It was always considered a step up from Pontiac in terms of luxury too. It went: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac.

Every time I run into this review something really sets me off when he ways "OmEEga"! I don't know why since I have no personal affection for the car.

I had a 74 Buick Apollo, Nutmeg Brown Metallic and Tan vinyl top. Mine did have the chrome trim and 350 ci. I ran dual exhaust with turbo mufflers, Dayton white letters, and 16in Chrome wire baskets. Tinted the windows and that car turned heads all over the streets of Albany Georgia from 1978-82. I'm sixty one now, and this is the favorite of all my cars. And I've owned plenty.

"When better Novas are built, Buick will build them!" Really the Buick 350 was a VG motor and was 125 pounds lighter than the Chevy. Trouble remembering was it Pontiac Phoenix and Olds Omega? Cadillac got the Seville and they actually managed to put enough 'makeup' on that pig that people bought it though it was based on the Nova platform with lots of improvements. Lincoln tried that with the Ford Granada to produce the Versailles but that was a big flop. I was in a self serve junkyard once and saw this really over dressed Granada and was taking in the bad taste until I realized it was a Lincoln. I had forgotten they made them. There were even a few with BMW turbo diesels installed. It still looked like a Granada.

@@keithstudly6071, That Pontiac your talking about was the Ventura, the Phoenix was from the late seventies- early eighties. The Phoenix replaced the Ventura. I think the Phoenix only came with the six cylinder engine?

Upgraded interior too.

And an Olds V8.

So true

....and the Buick Apollo

Did the '74 Nova (no-go) come with a sport package and an overhead valve 5.7L V8?

Sorry to hear that. What a "coincidence" ¡

Probably used to smuggle mexicans across the border. You could fit eight in the trunk, one in the glovebox and a kilo of coke in the spare tire.

No one cares. You still drive a Focus lol. What's your point in comparing your car to one 40-ish years older from the smog laden mid-70's? Technology moves on. Look at what a 5.7 liter engine does with the same technology as your Focus. A "350/4-barrel" in a '70 Vette also ran high 12's... This Omega is bogged down with a bunch of emissions crap and technology hadn't caught up yet. It was a huge step backwards performance-wise. If you were to simply set this car up the way it would have been sold 4-6 years earlier it would be MUCH quicker.

stupid comparison. This was 1970s when automakers first started putting on pollution controls. Of course your Focus is going to be quicker, or I would hope so, its 40 years newer. I would hope engine and transmission tech have come aways since then..

Omeega ... Omaaga ... Potato ... Potaaatoe ... Let's call the whole thing off.

to be expected with all the smog controls on cars then

Looked pretty good.

Don't forget there was the Buick Apollo as well that had this body style also, then two other cars shared this platform which was the 1973-74 Pontiac GTO, and then in the later design of the same car came the 1975 to 1978 Buick Skylark that also used the Nova Body style!!

Greg Benwell and... the Cadillac Seville. The under pinings were X-body. It was the most expensive Cadillac in 1976.

The Seville had the same 350 Olds motor. Cadillac buyers weren’t happy, and a class action lawsuit was filed against GM.

One could almost say he covered all 3 in 1.

Also Buick Apollo

Back then, you obeyed the yellow caution speed sign on corners.

Was a bit confused, too. Maybe they were talking load transfer weight.

@@louf7178 i think that guy was probably getting kickbacks from the car companies . in every one of his tests almost all his comments on the vehicle were positive . ford and gm probably figured that the more good things that were said about their new models , that the more it might boost their cars image , and sales

Dennis LePorte It shares the body styling of the 1973 and 1974 Novas.

Nova looked the same from 68- 72 ,then 73/74 changed a little.

The 1973/4 models had to comply with the government's new 5 mph bumper rules. Auto sylists had to redraw everything. It's amazing the cars looked as good as they did.

Henry Stowe............When the big bumpers came out, most of us hated the look. I bought a leftover '72 Nova in August 1972. A friend of mine like the car so much he tried to find one but they were all gone where we were. He settled for a '73. For whatever reason, the black vinyl top with the dog dish hubcaps somehow made the big bumpers tolerable to look at on his car.

The Colonnade styling...

Oh please. Honda was able to develop an engine that met emissions requirements without modification, why wasn't GM able to? The truth was american manufactures didn't want to change with the times and build cars that were worth a damn. They just figured the same people would keep buying their cars regardless of how crappy they got. I'm not saying pollution wasn't a challenge but it wasn't the whple story.

This is pretty good. www.netcarshow.com/pontiac/1974-gto/

The 74 GTO was more powerful , true dual exhaust and functional cold air shaker hood . Could run in the high 15s . Engine put out 200 hp / 295 torque

2bbl...I thought those were CFI.

@@hendo337 not in canada

@@ford1979truck that's right, I heard that catalytic converters weren't mandatory until later up there and a lot of the malaise era cars were more powerful up there.

The sad thing is, that was not terrible for an American car in 1974. It is just a miracle it stopped in a straight line.

You should drive one with 4 drums. My first car was a 1970 Dart Swinger V8 with drums all around. Panic stopping ti made it slide sideways instantly . Loved that car but braking and handling was horrid. That Omega handles like a Porsche compared to the Dart I had.

@@kevinpatrickmacnutt all the cars were like this then...

Needs a forged crank 425 with a '66 W30 cam.

My 72 old omega had a 350 gold rocket that produced 325 hp stock if I hammered it down you couldn't pull yourself off the seat and it would break the tires lose in second gear and cheerp them in third.

It was also 300 foot pounds of torque they underrated the power starting in the 70s to save cut the price if taxes like how Chinese motorcycles put an 85 mp speedo on their bikes even though they could go twice as fast.

@@jerryfitzpatrick4368 There was no 1972 Oldsmobile Omega. The First year was 1973 , and 1974 being the end of this body style. Hence the reason Olds Omega 1st gen parts are so rare.

@@jerryfitzpatrick4368 Dem Chinee sold motorcycles in the USA? When? Where? Under what brand name?

"Oh-May-Gah!!"😀 This gentleman's an amazing narrator, though, so I'm going to cut him some slack!!

Agreed

Only small in the very tight rear seat. My Dad made me look at one in 1976. Much uglier in person. The dealer also sold AMC & Ford. The Hornet was much better looking car.

and youre comparing a 40 year old car, with a ton of pollution controls..stupid comparison... my CTS V Sport can do 60 in 4 seconds, your point? I would hope since the 70's theyve improved the engines..

in those days Toyota had weed eater engines..

in those day a Turdota wouldnt out run a hover run...

I know right....no way that can be accurate

Might be accurate. The national 55 mph speed limit has just been instated, so 70 mph might have been close to top speed. I don't know about this model, but I'd driven other cars of the 70's and they weren't geared for driving much above 70.

That would have been a perfect car for a student who was in college at the time. Someone who wanted something sporty but, who didn't want to pay high insurance premiums. Acceleration times were not very important to this type of buyer.

Because it was faster than a Datsun, VW Bug, or later Chevette.

BUt you might as well just buy the "slow" optioned car. Because this is still slow, but will get 15 mpg.

1974 Pontiac Trans Am 455 was about the hottest car that year.

It was actually considered decent for the 70s